


Alt POV

by AceFace98



Series: Two Sides of the Same Coin [2]
Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Child Abandonment, Gen, Gerson trying to be a good cop, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Medical Trauma, Spoilers, Swearing, sans just wants to be a good bro
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-09
Updated: 2016-05-02
Packaged: 2018-06-01 03:04:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 15,544
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6498274
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AceFace98/pseuds/AceFace98
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This is a smaller side project, connected to Two Sides of the Same Coin. These are scenes from the main fic but told from different POVs, mostly Gerson and Sans.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Gerson

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Moss_Flowers](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Moss_Flowers/gifts).



> This chapter is mostly a gift for Moss_Flowers, who honestly wrote this a lot more than I did lol XD They inspired this entirely, and I love them to death for it.  
> This takes place during chapter five.

Gerson had owned the shop for four years, so he was well versed in what a normal day might consist of. He was used to an odd stream of inconsistent customers, the odd hours where no one would come in, and he was even used to the little fish girl barging in at random times for a war story. 

But if there was one thing he could never get used to, it was Dr. Wingding motherfucking Gaster. Pardon the french.

Gerson wasn’t even entirely certain what he disliked about the guy. The two had barely spoken a hundred words to each other, but something about the skeleton rubbed Gerson the wrong way. Gerson had a problem with skeletons in general, to be frank, but that was just because of the war memories. Skeletons were...eccentric fighters, to say the least. Gerson couldn’t count the number of times he had nearly gotten killed thanks to the stupidity of one of the skeleton soldiers.

But that was  _ then _ . Dr. Gaster hadn’t even fought in the war, so Gerson should,  _ logically _ , have no problem with the man.

Well, logic didn’t dictate emotions. Or instincts. So when two strangers walked in, claiming to be underlings of Dr. Gaster, Gerson was already feeling skeptical. 

“Dr. Gaster, eh?” Gerson said, leaning back a bit in his chair.

“Yessir.” The snake-like one said. Both had said their names not a moment before, but Gerson didn’t care to remember. “We’re doing a favor for him. You see, his nephews are visiting, and they appear to have run off.”

Gerson raised an eyebrow. “So go talk to the Royal Guard, I ain't the Captain anymore.”

The tall fellow shook his head. “Dr. Gaster doesn’t think that’ll be necessary. We’re just asking you to keep an eye out, and give us a call if you see them. Just to, you know, check in on them, make sure they’re doing OK.”

It all sounded pretty fair, but Gerson was still a bit unnerved by the whole interaction. He had lived a long life, one full of many ups and downs, but one thing that he had learned was that skeletons were dying out. It should’ve made the papers when two children were born, but Gerson couldn’t remember it. 

Still, Gerson was a turtle who helped out, even now. He listened patiently as the two doctors gave their descriptions, and then he patiently wrote down the phone number on the notepad next to his phone. 

Sans and Papyrus. Odd names, but skeletons didn’t exactly name their kids  _ normal _ ones. Gerson promised to keep an eye out, then waved the scientists along.

Skeleton children, hun? What a weird day already.

It got weirder.

Gerson was settling in to doze when he got another customer. He looked at them, then went back to falling asleep. It wasn’t until the small person turned to him that he realized what he was looking at.

He was looking  _ right at _ a skeleton child. Exactly like how those two scientists described. 

For a moment, the kid being on his own threw Gerson off. He had been told that the two would probably stick together, being close friends and presumably related, but currently there was only one skeleton child here. If skeletons were more common, Gerson might have even figured he was looking at the wrong child.

The kid caught him staring, so Gerson offered a smile. He smiled back, but looked shaky and nervous. He turned right back around and looked at the stands, as if he was still contemplating a purchase.

Gerson had met customers with anxiety before. After the war, there was enough of that going around the Underground. In a child, though, it was a bit unnerving.

Something wasn’t adding up. Gerson had been expecting the kids to be more like teenagers, ones who were bored with their Uncle’s sciencey stuff and walked off exploring. Certainly that had all been  _ implied _ when he talked to the other two; that there was nothing to worry about, the kids just wandered off. But this kid...he looked like he was maybe 11 at best. Sure 11 year olds liked to explore, but kids like that didn’t generally wander  _ far _ , especially when told not to. 

Well, there was only one way to find out what was going on.

“Well, ain’tcha and odd one, eh?” Gerson asked, keeping his tone friendly. The poor kid jumped and spun right around, looking way too anxious for a casual conversation.

“Ah...hi...there.” The kid sputtered out. He kept clenching and unclenching his hands, like he didn’t know what to do with himself. Gerson offer him a patient smile, trying to communicate that there was no harm done.

Really, a child this anxious couldn’t be normal.

“I...er...actually don’t have enough money.” The kid finally managed, looking like he wanted to run from the shop. Gerson wondered how the kid didn’t have enough money when his uncle was the Royal Scientist, but he only managed to wonder that in passing.

“I’m just gonna go.” The kid continued, inching his way out. 

Gerson was no closer to any answers. He was going to have to question this kid. Awkward, but, well, tough times and tough measures.

“You know, when those two were talking about a skeleton, I thought they were pulling my leg.” He began. The kid froze in place, almost looking petrified. Well he didn’t mean to  _ scare _ the poor thing. “I mean, skeletons are dying out, right? Most of them live out in Hotland, few would live somewhere where mud could get into their joints, wahaha!”

The kid didn’t laugh back, he just turned back to Gerson with wide eyes. To Gerson, that look was just another red flag. Was the kid just scared about getting into trouble? It seemed like there might be something more there.

“Don’t worry, youngin, I’m not gonna call them just yet.” He said, trying to pacify the small skeleton. “I want to hear your side of things first.” He pointed at the stool across from him, gesturing for the kid to take a seat.

The kid did so, looking almost like a condemned man. That was the face of someone who knew they were  _ badly _ in trouble. It almost made Gerson feel bad for calling him out.

“I’m Gerson,” He said, sticking out his hand. He wondered if the kid would volunteer his own name, then decided not to test that. “Are you Sans, or Papyrus?” 

“Papyrus.” The kid said, off the bat, then took Gerson’s hand. Gerson began shaking it vigorously, shaking the kid all around. Papyrus clearly wasn’t expect it, which made Gerson wonder, for a moment, if he had any grandparents. Still, when Gerson smirked at him he giggled, so it worked out.

“Sans is my brother.” Papyrus continued, looking the tiniest bit more at ease. 

Gerson raised an eyebrow. It had been implied, but neither of the scientists had actually said the two were related. Shouldn’t that have been stated? 

“Brother, eh? I don’t think that was mentioned before.” Gerson said, fishing.

“Oh, they might not know!” Papyrus said, as if he expected that kind of question. “Dr. Quid and Dr. Blake, I mean. I only just found out myself.”

“Quid and Blake, hun?” Gerson hummed, an old tell of his. He stored the names away for future use; seemed like he had need to remember them after all. 

It was kind of odd that Papyrus had only just found out he had a brother, but Gerson didn’t know the full story here. Perhaps they were adopted, or maybe the two had to be split up before for other reasons. Maybe they were more accurately cousins, or distantly related, but they had come to see each other as brothers because of the lack of other skeletons? Anything was possible, and it explained why the scientists hadn’t mentioned it before. 

What it still didn’t explain was why Gerson wasn’t aware of two skeletons being born, and why they had run off.

“So, why exactly did you and your brother run away?” Gerson asked, deciding not to beat around the bush.”

Papyrus froze up, his smile gone. His internal struggle was obvious; he wanted to answer, but he didn’t seem to know how. Had his brother told him not to talk to anyone about it? Was he still afraid of getting in trouble? Or...was it  _ really _ bad? Did he not want to talk about it because he didn’t want to remember it? 

Fuck this was going to be more complicated than he’d thought.

“You don’t have to answer that if you don’t want to.” Gerson told him, the kid looking at him in surprise. He didn’t seem to know how to respond to that, so Gerson continued. “If it’s too much to talk about, you don’t need to.”

“It’s...just...” Papyrus cleared his through. “It’s erm...it’s hard to...explain? And, um, I don’t...I don’t think you’d believe me.”

Gerson tried to withhold his surprise. Now they were getting somewhere. Generally when a kid says “I don’t think you’ll believe me” they mean exactly that. They mean it as saying “What happened to me is so bad that I don’t even know if it’s logically believable.” 

Gerson, in his time with the Royal Guard, had faced many stories like that. You grow up learning that monsters are gentle people, made up of kindness and hope. This was true, but what was  _ also _ true was that there were always bad apples. He knew that better than anyone else. 

So his first thought was maybe this Uncle had much more to answer for than just being unlikeable.

“OK then, next question. Do you like these people, these doctors?” Gerson asked, leaning in.

“The scientists? I mean, sure.” Papyrus seemed almost confused by the question, as if he’d never been asked if he liked someone before. “I’ve known them my whole life, so I...don’t think they’re bad. Sans doesn’t like them though.”

Of course Sans didn’t like them. Gerson was getting a picture painted here, one that said that running away had been Sans’s idea. It made sense; he didn’t know Papyrus well, but something about this kid, with his nervousness and with his friendly tone and habits, told Gerson that this was a good kid. Someone who did his homework on time and brushed his teeth without being asked. 

His answers were the most interesting. It was almost like he was trying to not say anything bad about anyone, while still telling Gerson everything he needed to know. Last time Gerson had seen this kind of response, it had been someone trying to defend their emotionally manipulative partner. 

“Uh-hun. Where is he, anyways?” Gerson asked. If running away was Sans’s idea, then why hadn’t he stuck with his brother? 

“My brother? He’s...he’s sick.” Papyrus’s worry over  _ that _ situation told Gerson exactly why he had risked coming to the shop. “His magic is really, really delicate or something. It’s um...well it’s just weird is all.”

“Delicate?”

“He says it builds on itself. He absorbs so much magic that it makes him sick sometimes.” 

Well that was another field to explore. Gerson didn’t like the implications this brought up, especially considering how  _ not normal _ that was. Monsters didn’t get  _ too  _ much magic, their bodies absorbed it at safe levels. This was going somewhere much darker than he had anticipated. Granted, Gerson didn't know much of anything yet, but something was very wrong here.

“That’s weird.” Gerson said, deciding that pressing the matter would probably just make Papyrus clam up again. “But, continuing on. Sans doesn’t like the doctors, you said?”

Papyrus nodded. “He...well he probably hates them, but...er...it’s kind of...that’s why we ran away, really and it’s....er...”

“Complicated.” Gerson nodded, expecting as much. 

Right. Sans hates the scientists, but Papyrus is too nice for that. Sans decides to help protect his brother, and they run away. The mental image was more than enough to work off of, frankly it’d could potentially be enough to actually pull Dr. Gaster in for questioning if Gerson had the connections. He didn’t, though, he was a citizen now. He had to handle this like one.

“I getcha, I getcha. Next question, is that one fella really your uncle?” Because it was really starting to bother Gerson that he wasn’t aware of two skeletons being born.

“Uncle?” Papyrus made an...expression. It was hard to decipher. “What? No? I don’t think I’m actually related to any of them, though I used to call Dr. Gaster ‘Dad’.”

_ What? _ Gerson leaned back. That refused to process. Gerson might’ve missed the news of two skeletons being born, but there was no way in  _ hell _ he would’ve missed the  _ Royal Scientist _ having children. 

“Dad, hun?” Gerson tried to build off this. “He says you two are his nephews, visiting from out of town.” 

Papyrus was still making that face, but he managed to shake his head. “I lived with him in the labs for forever. I mean,” He paused, shifting a bit in thought. “He could be my uncle? I guess? I don’t actually know if he’s my dad or not, he just says that it’s close enough whenever people ask him why I call him Dad.”

This went a bit beyond child negligence. This was something else entirely, something Gerson was almost unprepared to deal with. He was starting to wonder how much of this was something he could handle on his own. 

“And what does Sans call him?” He asked, trying to keep his thoughts in order.

“Crackface.” Papyrus responded, almost instinctually. 

Gerson couldn’t help himself, he busted up laughing. He couldn’t stop it, it was just so funny to imagine a small child call Dr. Gaster  _ Crackface _ . There was something almost innocent in the insult, something playground enough to be a mixture of adorable and hilarious. 

“Well he’s not wrong, eh?” Gerson wheezed, looking at Papyrus’s very confused expression. The fact that Papyrus wasn’t laughing somehow made the whole thing funnier. Poor Papyrus, he was too nice to understand a good insult when he heard one. 

Finally Gerson managed to calm down, breathing deeply. “Man I haven’t heard someone give an honest opinion on the man in a long time.” Gerson said, by way of explanation. “Too many people are willing to say nice things about him, just because he built the Core. To tell you the truth, the man strikes me as a bit  _ less than friendly _ .”

And he had a funny feeling Papyrus would agree. Watching the subtle shrug of Papyrus’s shoulders told Gerson that he did, but the old turtle knew that if he called Papyrus out on it the kid would probably find some other way of defending his “dad.”

Which put Gerson back on the matter at hand.

“So anyways, what’s it like, living with Gaster?” He asked. He tried to word it casual, but this question was his real cincher. 

“Er...well I didn’t see him much. He was always working.” Papyrus looked almost sad at the thought. “And...um...when I did see him we didn’t talk all that much.”

“But you lived with the other scientists as well?” What was  _ their _ role in this? How much were  _ they _ involved?

“Well I don’t know if they lived there. But I saw them all the time. They worked in the lab with Dr. Gaster.”

Hun.  _ Weeeird _ that Papyrus lived in the lab but didn’t know who else did so. 

“But only those four?” Gerson asked, trying to fill in the details.

“I think they’re his personal team or something.” Papyrus said, as if this knowledge was common. “Actually, I didn’t know there were more scientists in the Core until we...er...left.”

Gerson hummed again, the habitable sign of concentration bringing back memories of other cases. He felt himself slipping more into a Captain mode than a Gerson one. Time to press a little deeper. 

“What did they work on?” He asked. 

Papyrus fidgeted. “I...er...I don’t know.”

Gerson raised an eyebrow. “You lived there, and you don’t know what kind of things they were working on?” He had a feeling the kid knew  _ exactly _ what they’d been working on.

The kid shrugged. “I stayed in my room most of the time. I know a bit about the Core, because I read some of Dr. Gaster’s notes, and about some of the other technologies around Hotland but...well I just kind of stayed in my room.”

Gerson nodded. Of course the kid stayed in his room. He lived his entire life in the lab, stuck in one room, where apparently one method of entertainment were dull notes on how the Underground got it’s power. Couldn’t have been a whole lot of options then. And what kid used the word “technologies” anyways?

“Did Sans just stay in his room as well, or did you two share a room?” He asked. He was starting to get the funny feeling that “stayed in his room” was a euphemism. 

Papyrus shook his head. “We had separate rooms. We, uh, didn’t actually meet until two days ago.”

Right before they ran away. Or was it right before the  _ escaped _ ? 

“And when you were with the others, did they talk about their work stuff?” He said. He almost wished he had his notepad for this, but him jotting down notes would probably only freak the kid out more.

“Kind of?” Papyrus shrugged. “Just general things, like saying something needs something else, or that one of the other scientists needs help. Just...vague things.”

“So nothing important.” His train of thought was going everywhere and nowhere. There had to be a reason why this kid hadn’t gone to the Guard yet, and Gerson had a feeling it was probably due to a lack of trust. Either that or the brother was untrusting enough that the two had hidden rather than come forward. 

_ I don’t think you’d believe me _ .

Poor kids, if that was honestly how they were picturing this situation. It was probably the worst thing they could do as well. What if it had been a different shop owner? What if the scientists had actually gotten called?

Gerson was very tempted to tell the kid they were going to the Guard right then and there. To just hold his hand and drag him somewhere where Gerson would  _ know _ he’d be safe. That would easily be the worst thing he could do, though. If he was going to help this kid, he was going to need his trust. He was also going to need more evidence; this wasn’t some random monster off the street, this was the  _ Royal Scientist _ . Sure Fluffybuns was all for saying no one was above the law, but the man had been handpicked for the job. Fluffybuns wasn’t going to just take Gerson at his word, not when the suspect was a close friend of his.

Gerson turned back to look at Papyrus, and was pretty surprised with what he saw. The kid looked...bored. He was looking over everything in the store, taking in details. He seemed most interested in the phone and the pad of paper next to it, probably thinking about how easy it was for Gerson to ruin his life. It was almost like looking at a kid in the principal's office, waiting for them to dish out a punishment. Only, Papyrus was too young to not be defending himself. 

Unless, of course, he’d been taught not to.

Papyrus glanced back up and started when he caught Gerson staring. Gerson cleared his throat. “You’re welcome to volunteer any information here. The sooner I’m certain we don’t need to involve those good doctors, the sooner you can leave.”

Papyrus looked mighty embarrassed at that. “I just...I thought you didn’t want to be interrupted.”

Definitely taught. God this was a mess.

“Papyrus, answer me this honestly.” Gerson made intense eye contact, trying to convey in his facial expression how important this was. “Do you want to go back to living with Dr. Gaster?”

“No.” The answer was so quick that even Gerson had to blink. Maybe Papyrus saw that, because he instantly followed up. “It’s not that I don’t like Dr. Gaster, or any of the other scientists! It’s just that...with what Sans has said about them, and with...other things, I’m not certain if going back in a good idea.”

Gerson was beginning to feel strongly that the kid was right in that regard. 

“I...well I really like being able to go to many different places whenever I want to,” Papyrus continued, his words making Gerson even more certain that his situation had been incredibly dire. “And i really like looking at the crystals and playing with the Echo Flowers and just...I know all that will stop if I go back. I...I don’t know, I might still, if it means not getting Sans into trouble.”

Gerson felt something in him soften. Siblings shouldn’t have to defend each other from parental figures. That  _ alone _ was a big red flag. In  _ this _ ? It was more like alarm bells.

“If you don’t want to go back there, you don’t have to.” Gerson said softly. “If it’s that bad, then don’t go back.”

The kid stared back at him. He opened his mouth, then closed it, as if the thought had never accorded to him. It very likely hadn’t.

“I...well I’m a kid...though...and, er...Doctor...”

Gerson snorted and waved a hand. “Look, being a kid  _ does _ mean you should have someone looking out for you. But if that person is mean, and if that person does things that make you want to run away from them, then you need to think about getting help.”

Papyrus looked away, shuffling his feet. “I...I’ll keep that mind.”

Yeah, like hell he would. He was going to go back to his brother and just hope and pray things got better. Unless the two magically started trusting people, they were never going to get anywhere.

Gerson needed to keep Papyrus with him. Preferably, he needed some way for both brothers to come around, and for him have a chance to protect them. Specifically, he needed more evidence before he was to the new Captain, or before he went off to the labs with his hammer himself. 

He had an idea. 

He leaned back in his chair, trying to appear casual. “Alright, I’ve made up my mind. I won’t call them.”

The genuine happiness coming from Papyrus was almost heartwarming. In context though, it was really almost sad.

“But!” He added, which made Papyrus’s face fall quickly. “I have a feeling that you didn’t come into my shop today to talk with this old turtle.”

“I was looking for food.” Papyrus explained, which was what Gerson had expected. “But I can’t afford anything here. I’ll figure something else out.”

Gerson chuckled. “If  _ that’s _ the problem, then how about you come back here tomorrow, eh kid? I could do with some help around here, and it looks like you could do with some money.”

Nothing embarrassing about working for your keep. Hopefully, the brother wouldn’t object. Perhaps he’d even come with Papyrus and both of them could “work” for Gerson.

Papyrus looked thrilled, to say the least. He leapt up so fast the stool nearly fell over. He bounced, vibrating with excitement.

“Really?! Wowie!” He was nearly shouting now, his grin infectious. “Thank you so much, Mr. Gerson!”

“Just Gerson, kid.” He could help but smile back. “Come back tomorrow at noon, and I’ll have some stuff for you to do.”

“Noon?” Papyrus looked so confused that Gerson was instantly reminded of his speculations. 

Right. 

“12pm.” Gerson explained. Did he know how to read a clock? Better to be safe than sorry. “When both hand on the clock are on the twelve. Bere here by then.”

Papyrus gave a curt nod in understanding. He looked positively pumped, which reminded Gerson strongly of little Undyne. He had a feeling the two would get along.

“Alright, well get outta here.” He said, waving. “Your brother needs someone to look after him, right?” 

Papyrus face changed in remembrance, and he nodded. He thanked the shopkeeper again, then bounded out and on his way. 

Gerson couldn’t help the painful feeling of worry in his chest. He hoped the two had a proper shelter of some kind. Sleeping out in the middle of the caves was the worst place for someone who was sick.

The following day, noon came and went, and Papyrus didn’t come back.

Gerson tried not to worry after the first couple of minutes, but when a full hour passed he knew something was up. 

Papyrus was a  _ good kid _ . That had been the entirety of his character, someone who just wanted to do the right thing. He was young and innocent, and he’d seemed so  _ excited _ at the prospect of having a job. Clearly, it hadn’t been  _ Papyrus’s _ idea to not come back.

Gerson could only hope it had been the brother’s. He didn’t have enough evidence to take on the Royal Scientist, especially not with the boys themselves. But trying to find two kids who didn’t want to be found? He was better off waiting for them to try the shop again. And they  _ had _ to; he was the only shop that sold food in Waterfall.

By the end of the day, his worry was brewing a storm in his gut, and there was no sign of any skeletons. He had to hope that there was someone else taking care of them, because it was almost too much to picture them not eating at all.

The following day saw no skeletons either. Two days without signs of the kids made Gerson more and more apprehensive. He had decided around noon that he was going to go look for them if they didn’t show. At the very least he’d bring them some apples and Sea Tea, and he could hope his meager bond with Papyrus would be enough for the two kids to come testify against the scientists. There was no way he was letting some  _ asshole _ get away with messing with  _ kids _ in his Underground.

He was about to close up shop for the day when another kid came through. They were one of the kids that had come by before to listen to his stories, but he had trouble with names on the best of days. They were small, lizard like, and bright yellow. They had one a stripped dress, and a bow tied to one of their head spikes. And they looked _very_ worried.

“Um...Mr. Gerson?” They asked, fidgeting. “I...er...I’m friends with Sans and Papyrus.”

Gerson perked up at that, dropping everything to turn and listen to the child. “Oh? Are they doing OK?”

The kid froze, and Gerson knew right then that there wasn’t going to be a good answer to that question. In his mind, he was already reaching for his hammer.


	2. Sans

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sans POV during chapters seven through eight.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this took me like nine years to finish, lol. I actually didn't realize how much Sans would've had to go through after Papyrus got caught until I started writing this. Actually, in the end I cut a few things simply because it sounded really ramble-y and slow, and it's still nearly double the length of a normal TSotSC chapter. LOL.  
> I'll also mention this here because Papyrus couldn't pay that much attention, but he was back in the lab for nearly two days before Sans found him.

_ Now or never, eh Pap? _

In some weird, morbidly curious way, Sans had always wanted to know what the blue attack felt like. He had practiced it a million times back at the lab, had run through a dozen drills, had fantasized about the effect for countless hours. He had never expected it to feel so...horrifying. But maybe that was just due to circumstances. 

Or maybe the attack was just horrifying on it’s own. He tried to dig in his feet, but he couldn’t get traction. He was falling, only he was falling towards the wall, as if it was now the ground and he was extremely high up. It was a serial experience, made even more so by the person using the attack on him.

He hit the edge of the cliff, the one Alphys had mentioned a couple days ago. Then he was falling for real.

He was going to die. He was going to hit the ground and splatter into dust. 

He gasped, unable to get the breath to scream. Curling in tightly on himself, his magic began to respond to his fear.

_ No wait! Papyrus! _

He teleported, completely without his consent. Suddenly he wasn’t falling in the dark, but somewhere  _ very _ bright. He landed a second later, in something soft and...cold?

Drained dry, he couldn’t keep his eyes opened. His breathing evened out, and he was soon unconscious. 

 

~~

 

Sans wanted to scream. He also wanted to punch something, maybe punch something  _ while _ screaming. That’d be nice. Relaxing even. 

He shivered as he walked, longing for the hooded jacket he’d left back at Alphys’s house. And the shoes. And something  _ not _ a short-sleeve T-Shirt. Preferably something warm, or, even better, for his magic to come back enough for him to teleport out of this place. He wasn’t even entirely certain where he was, just that there was a lot of snow and a shocking lack of monsters. In his brief experience outside of the lab he’d lived in, Sans had come to understand that monsters were  _ everywhere _ . There always seemed to be a crowd whenever he and his brother had gone out, even when it was relatively late at night. Out here in this frozen wood, there was  _ no one _ . It was a strange, but a welcome reprieve. There was no way he could answer any questions or concerns. 

The wind cut through him again, sending a shiver down his bones. At this point the shivering was probably just a long forgotten reflex; he wasn’t actually feeling all that cold. If he focused hard enough, he could probably tune it all out, and remind his subconscious mind that he didn’t have any skin to  _ get _ cold. Being barefoot and in short sleeves should’ve been no bother, but Sans felt like his joints were freezing over.

Where on  _ earth _ had he ended up?

The problem with his teleportation is that he had very little control over it. Well, that was really the story of his life with magic in general, but with teleportation it was especially damning. It had taken him weeks to reach this level of skill, and  _ just _ when his confidence in himself was finally rising, shit like  _ this _ has to happen. Sure it was handy to know that his magic would cause him to teleport out of dangerous situations, but it was definitely  _ not _ handy when he had no say in the destination. 

Or when teleporting out of a dangerous situation uncontrollably meant leaving his brother behind.

He decided he wanted to punch Crackface in the face the most. Maybe Blake and Quid, following that.

He hadn’t even had time to feel all that upset about it yet. Currently he was just  _ pissed _ , with a dangerous level of determination coursing through him. His brother’s sacrifice hadn’t been lost on him, but he very much just wanted to bust into the lab and grab his bro and run.

Yeah  _ right _ . He couldn’t do a lick of damage to anyone. Punching someone as hard as he could, firing a blaster, hitting them with a bone, it  _ all _ did the same amount of weak ass damage. One day he’d figure out a way around it, but for now he was stuck with it. There was no way he was going to be able to actually  _ bust _ Papyrus out of the lab. 

But, frankly, he had no other plan. The best he could do now was keep moving and stay out of sight of the scientists. Which was  _ bull _ and he didn’t  _ like _ it. But it was all he had. Which, actually, probably said a lot about his ability to think things through.

He shivered violently, pausing to try to tell his body to shut up for a moment. 

Breaking out of the lab the first time had been hell. He hadn’t even really known what he was doing, just teleporting from room to room to try to figure something out. Some kind of plan. The first time he’d seen Papyrus had been in the surveillance room. He couldn’t read a map to save his life, but looking through video files had come second nature to him. So it hadn’t taken him long to realize that there were  _ two _ cameras marked as “Subject Quarters” rather than just one. 

He hadn’t been prepared to leave knowing someone else might be going through the same hell he had. And when he actually found Papyrus and figured out what was going on, he hadn’t been prepared to leave the kid to get dicked over for his escape.

Them being brothers had just sort of become a...pleasant bonus. 

Maybe he could sneak in again? Find Papyrus and teleport them the fuck away. What were the scientists going to do to try to stop him? He was completely untouchable.

Unless his magic went out of control again.

Yup, stopping  _ that _ line of thinking right there.

And, of course, in order to sneak into the lab he’d have to  _ regain _ the magic he’d need to teleport. Plus teleporting with a passenger was hell, so he’d have to wait until he was good as new.

Yeah, stopping that line of thought too. 

Sans sighed, the snow becoming more and more slush like. He decided that warmer was good, so he kept to this direction. The trees began to thin out a bit more, and looking up he could see the familiar blue-ish stones of Waterfall. He must’ve gone out past Waterfall, probably somewhere close to the summit of the mountain for how cold it was. Probably the exact  _ opposite _ end of the Underground to his brother right now, knowing his luck. 

He was lost. Completely and entirely. Until he got his magic back and could teleport, he was stuck just wandering around until something looked familiar.

Papyrus had been the one to handle it last time Sans had teleported them somewhere random, and he had managed it much easier than Sans could have. Papyrus must’ve had some kind amazing memory, since he always seemed to know where he was going. Like when he managed to find Gerson shop after just breezing past it with Alphys. Papyrus probably would’ve been the only one of the the two who remembered the way to the dumb, had they actually gotten the chance to go back.

Sans felt his anger fading. He sniffled, trying to keep his thoughts from going in  _ that direction _ . He tried desperately not to think about how much he had actually grown to care for the dude, how much he admired him.

Papyrus had everything Sans had always wanted. The naivety, the innocence, the kindness. But, oddly, Sans wasn’t all that jealous of Papyrus. It was more so like he just wanted to protect his little brother, just wanted to keep him  _ him _ , rather than wanting the traits he had.  And now? Well now his baby brother was back in the hands of that  _ asshole _ and god  _ knows _ what was happening...

San took a deep breath and told himself to calm down. Papyrus had been just to control case, right? Maybe he still was. Sure Dr. Gaster would probably want to punish Pap for running off, but nothing worse than that would likely happen. If all else failed, Sans could probably turn himself over and negotiate for Pap to go free. 

No that was dumb.  _ Really _ dumb. Sans knew for a fact that Dr. Gaster would never let either of them go. The best Sans could hope for was to eventually get his magic up enough to get his brother out. Hopefully Papyrus wouldn’t be too angry with him for taking so long.

The snow broke under his foot and he was suddenly on stone. He could feel the change, the snow too thin to keep him off the ground proper. Relieved, Sans continued walking, the snow fading into dripping water and caverns.

The cold abated. He began to warm up a bit, the damp ground washing the slush off his bare feet. The bottom hem of his pants was completely torn to shreds, but he didn’t really care. He rubbed his upper arms, generating heat and trying to get more comfortable.

It all had to be some kind of reflex. Some part of him saying  _ snow means you’re cold _ even when he wasn’t. This was his first time ever seeing snow, ever feeling it, but some part of him knew how he was “suppose” to react.

He often times thought about the human parts of himself. Back in the lab, there had been little else to do  _ but _ think, and Crackface had given him a lot to chew on when he mentioned that he’d been made from the remains of humans. He knew that he looked so odd because of it, his magic making the mismatched parts of two human skeletons somehow work together. Of course, he had none of the memories of being either human, but sometimes he had to wonder if there were any kind of lingerings.

Things that could be affecting his personality, and he just wasn’t aware of it.

He wondered if Papyrus was the same way. Clearly the kid had to also be a human skeleton, since he’d be a very inaccurate control if he wasn’t, but Papyrus looked much more normal than Sans did. Was he just one skeleton then? Did he have any of these odd feelings? Sans had been much too nervous to ask.

He tried not to think that he’d now never get the chance to ask, but the thought appeared on its own anyways.

Sans continued into Waterfall, keeping his head down. He’d been out cold for a while after that teleport, so he had no idea if all the scientists were back in the lab, or if they were out searching again. He didn’t have the luxury of a hooded coat, or scarf, to hide his features, and he was aware that he was very  _ noticeably _ a skeleton. His bones glowed in the light of the crystals, like a brightly lit neon  _ Here I am! _ sign. He needed some way of hiding, of laying low, until his magic came back.

This was a nightmare. Frankly, he didn’t even know how he’d react if one of the scientists just jumped out and grabbed him. 

He ended up walking around for nearly an hour. Many of the twists and turns of Waterfall were dead ends, passages that  _ looked _ like they lead somewhere but actually didn’t, and the dim lighting made it impossible to tell the difference before you ran into a wall. Sans found a couple of crowds, but even following the flow of traffic didn't seem to get him anywhere familiar. Either that or he was even worse with directions than he thought. He got a couple of stares, but he found that if he just stared back the monsters usually just ignored him. He had heard from many people now that skeletons were rare, and he hoped that was the  _ only _ reason why people were looking at him funny.

He found a path that he remembered leading to the dumb and took it, hoping he could figure out his way back to Alphys’s house from there. If he was there, then he could figure out a way back to Hotland. Or maybe he could crash there until he was fully rested. Well, he probably couldn’t do that. If Alphys caught him there she’d probably get super mad, since he had yelled at her and then said that Papyrus and him would leave the house by nightfall.

Had nightfall happened yet? Probably. It was probably early the following day, based off the amount of people out and about.

He was nearly at the dump when he heard his name being called. 

He stiffened, trying to teleport away and failing completely. He wasn’t Papyrus. He couldn’t make an attack do any damage. But he was damned if he didn’t try. So he spun right around with a bone club in hand, ready to beat someone.

Aaaand that someone turned about to be Alphys. She looked positively shocked at seeing him nearly attack her. One more thing to feel like an asshole about.

“Ah...sorry Al, you scared me right outta my skin.” Sans quickly desummoned his attack, standing up straighter. Wait, shit, hadn’t he been mad at her? Well, it wasn’t like he cared about it  _ now _ .

“Sans...where’s Papyrus?” Alphys began, the look of shock not going away. He realized she wasn’t shocked that he had nearly attacked her, she was shocked because he was alone.

And he had no good answer to her question. He just...looked away.

“Sans.” She said, her voice harder now. He closed his eyes, willing her to go somewhere else. “Sans! This...this is serious where is...”

“The scientists have him again, OK?” He barked out. He turned and looked back at her. “He...he just...”

When had he started crying? Now was not the time for that. He whipped his eyes furiously.

“He’s gone.” He managed. “I’m...I’m trying to think of some...some way I can...”

Alphys’s hand clamped over her mouth. She looked horrified, which was especially odd considering she didn’t know everything about their situation. Her imagination had clearly run away with her, but at least she had an appropriate reaction.

“Sans...I...” She swallowed, her face shifting as her resolve set. “I did something that you told me not to but...but I couldn’t stand by and see this just  _ happen _ . I went to Gerson.”

“You  _ what _ ?!” Here was the anger again. Goddammit did this girl ever  _ learn _ ?! “Why would you  _ do that _ ?!”

“Because he’s going to help!” Now it was Alphys’s turn to look mad. “He was worried for you and Papyrus, especially when Papyrus didn’t show back up at his shop! He was  _ already _ going to question Dr. Gaster by the time I got there. He’s  _ going _ to help. But he needs  _ you _ to help him help you.”

She stood her ground, looking just as angry as Sans felt. She looked...well oddly enough she looked determined. Sans had always wondered if monsters could use determination as a power naturally, or if they had to go through the sessions first. He wouldn’t have been surprised to see Alphys demonstrate the answer to that question right here and now.

And...well he really wasn’t feeling that angry anymore. He was just too...tired for that. Something else had been taken from him when Papyrus had been caught, and he couldn’t find it in him to care about himself anymore.

No, that wasn’t completely accurate. He cared he just...he was lost. Maybe he could’ve fought this feeling off. Maybe he could’ve worked up the determination needed to do everything on his own. But, well, it had become extremely comforting to be able to rely on someone else. He hadn’t so much lost the determination as he had just...relaxed. It was like an old ache of his had managed to be kinked out, like some sore spot had finally healed. And now that Papyrus was gone, it felt like the teether had been cut. 

He loved his brother, and he needed him. 

And...well he’d only been dodging Alphys’s offers of help because he was afraid of being caught. Of being brought back to the lab. And look how well  _ that _ plan had turned out.

So. Fuck it.

“Alright.” He said, letting out an exasperated sigh. “I’m feeling desperate enough. Mind leading the way?”

Alphys blinked at him. She paused, opened her mouth and looked around for a minute, then smiled slightly. There was a sadness in her eyes, though. She seemed to...know what all was going on in his head for him to make this decision. 

She didn’t really have anything else to add. She gave him her raincoat so he could pull the hood up and feel a bit more incognito, and was just, in general, being a great person. He felt more and more like an asshole for yelling at her as they walked.

But, mostly, he was just anxious. Something in him was screaming, telling him this was a terrible idea.

Memories came up unbidden. Things like Dr. Blake teaching him, very patiently, how to read. Of Dr. Jess teaching him how to use the blue attack. Of Dr. Gaster even, before he first strapped Sans down to the gurney, when he showed Sans around a couple of the labs. Sans knew now that the reason for his introductions to the lab was so he’d know how to respond to things scientifically, but when he was a little kid it had all just been fascinating. 

So he had been little hesitant to trust people. He still was. He just wanted very much not to be wrong. He’d been wrong before, thinking that people could be good.

In his experience, trusting someone just meant getting hurt. But...well his experience hadn’t been normal. It was gonna take a lot of effort to remember that.

Alphys lead him through several passages, the two children keeping quiet. As they neared the shop the sight of armour winked out at Sans, and he felt something shiver down his back. The Royal Guard all looked...intimidating to say the least. It was hard to remember that they were there to  _ help _ .

“He’s sure calling in the cavalry, ain’t he?” Sans mumbled to Alphys. There were three Guards people standing out in the hall alone, and there were bound to be more inside the shop. Even Alphys seemed a bit surprised at the sight of them. She still managed to give him a comforting look, then offered up her hand.

He froze for a moment, but then took it. He was going to need the support.

The Guard members all started muttering to themselves when Alphys came up, leading a skeleton, but they all let the two children in without a fuss. Sans had to work hard not to panic about being boxed into the shop.

He was past the point of no return now. Might as well dive in fully.

Gerson was talking with someone when the two came in, but his head snapped forward when he caught sight of the two. His face shifted into something Sans couldn’t identify, then went straight to some odd mixture of relief and worry. He didn’t seem to know how to address Sans, so he turned to Alphys instead.

“You found him!” He said. “Good job Alphys.”

She smiled a bit sadly. 

Sans looked at the other three Guard members. Not the army he’d been picturing, but they were clearly very capable. Only one of them stood without a helmet on, and they were intimidating and beastly. Kind of wolf like, but Sans hadn’t met enough monsters to tell.

Gerson turned back to Sans. “Where’s your brother?” He asked, worry underlining his eyes. 

Well, he supposed he should’ve seen that question coming. He took a breath.

“The scientist who were looking for us took him.” He explained. “Papyrus...he hid me so they didn’t find me. He’d be back at the lab by now.” 

He couldn’t tell them about the teleporting. Not after everything else that Gaster had told him. Teleporting wasn’t normal magic; the last thing he needed was for them to think he was a liar and he didn’t have the strength to prove that he  _ could _ do it. 

Gerson’s face twitched. He looked angry, all of a sudden. He turned back to the wolf monster.

“Papyrus is the one I was telling you about.” Gerson said, seemingly by way of explanation. “This is his brother.”

“I see.” The wolf person turned to Sans, looking him over. Sans was very aware of how much shorter he was to this beastly figure. The wolf knelt down closer, looking at Sans with very serious eyes. 

“Sans, is it? Gerson has spoken a bit about you and your situation.” The wolf began. “My name is Varg, I’m the current Captain of the Royal Guard. Do you mind if I ask you some questions?”

Sans looked right back up at Gerson. For some reason, there was something oddly...encouraging about the old turtle. When Gerson gestured for him to continue, Sans turned back to Varg. He clenched Alphys’s hand a bit tighter, but if he was hurting her she didn’t say.

“Uh...um...s-sure.” He began. He swallowed, trying to keep his nerves in order.

Varg offered him a patient smile. “You don't have to mention anything you don’t want to. We just want to help, and we want to help get your brother out of Dr. Gaster’s care. To do that we just need to know a couple of things, OK?”

Sans nodded, keeping his emotions in check. Crying would definitely make him look a lot less serious than he needed to be right then and there, but the full extent of the situation was crashing down on him.

The Guard might be willing to help, but they needed proof that help was needed. That meant Sans had to be able to tell them everything and he...

Well he was terrified. He focused on saving Papyrus, keeping himself calm.

“Now, Gerson says that Papyrus told him Dr. Gaster was his father?” Varg asked. “Are you both his children?”

Sans nodded. “I think? When I was a kid, I called Dr. Gaster Dad but then um...well then...”

“It’s OK.” Varg said, his words calm and soothing. “Did he hurt you?”

Sans clenched his teeth, nodding.

“Did he hurt Papyrus?”

Slowly he shook his head. “Pap...he was the control experiment...I was the...the main one.” He managed to work out.

Varg clearly wasn’t expecting that kind of answer. He blinked and looked up at Gerson, who gave a very... _ specific _ look type back.

“I think there’s something more going on here.” Gerson muttered. He stepped around the counter and looked down at Sans himself. “Sans, do you know why Dr. Gaster wanted to hurt you two?” 

Sans nodded stiffly. “He was going to use us to break the barrier.”

Varg and Gerson shared another look. 

“You think that the Royal Scientist is... _ experimenting _ on kids?” Varg asked. He seemed...shocked. Well, more so appalled. But...there was very little actual  _ disbelief  _ in his features. 

“That’s exactly what I think.” Gerson looked at Sans again. The old turtle was clearly expecting him to say something, so Sans cleared his throat and...

Well he tried.

“Gaster was um...” Sans began. “He tested a lot of different things on me. He wanted to see if he could improve my attack and defense, and to boast my magical abilities.”

He had wanted to make Sans as powerful as a human. That had been his original goal, to make a series of monsters that could trick the barrier into believing they were human. When Sans’s magic all but broke under the strain, something else sprung up.

Sans didn’t know what Crackface’s plan was anymore. But he knew there still  _ was _ one. He  _ always  _ had a plan.

Varg stood up, turning back to Gerson.

“I can’t believe this.” He didn’t sound confused, or surprised though. He just sounded pissed. “I’m going to do a complete search of the labs. Are you coming with?”

“Can I bring the hammer?” Gerson asked, sounding sly. 

Varg rolled his eyes, then gestured for the two Guards to leave. He turned back to Alphys and Sans.

“Miss. Alphys, where is your guardian right now?” He asked.

“M-my Dad works in the Core.” Alphys managed to work out, seemingly shocked he was talking to her. “My babysitter's back at our apartment.”

“Please hurry home now.” Varg picked up his helmet from the counter. “Sans, I need you to come with us, OK?”

Sans winced, but he managed to nod his head. Gradually he was able to release Alphys’s hand. She smiled, albit a bit uneasily, and waved, taking off for home. Sans made a mental note to tell her everything when he saw her again; she’d been too good of a person to not know the full details of what he and Papyrus had been running from.  

“He’s coming with us?” Gerson asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Only as far as the castle.” Varg responded. “We’re going to need the King’s permission to ransack the labs.”

Gerson sighed. “I was afraid you’d say that.” He looked back at Sans. “Would you be up for talking to the King?”

Sans blanched, blinking rapidly. Before he could think of a response, Gerson continued.

“If you’re not, that’s OK.” He said, then gestured between him and Varg. “We can speak on your behalf. You’re  _ safe _ now.”

Sans nodded again, but he couldn’t process it. Couldn’t really wrap his mind around everything that was happening. He hadn’t even said  _ that _ much. What made them believe him?

Gerson grabbed a shockingly large hammer and clipped it to his belt. He looked almost...pumped, like he knew what to expect of this and was psyching himself up. He then turned back to Sans, offering the kid a patient smile and his hand.

It wasn’t the same as holding Alphys’s hand, mostly because Gerson’s completely engulfed his, but it was support and Sans really needed that right then and there.

The odd little group was off to the castle.

 

~~

 

The castle was both everything and nothing like Sans expected. It was big and grand from the outside, requiring the group to go across several long arching bridges over New Home. From there, the castle looked big and imposing, but the closer they got the more Sans realized that it was mostly a facade. 

All the path really lead to was a small, tidy house. 

Gerson must’ve sense Sans’s confusion, or else he just liked to talk, because the closer they got the more he explained.

“Back when monsters first left Home,” He said, gesturing around. “This was the first place people settled. The original Castle was going to be very big and grand, but as they built it the King, Asgore, realized it didn’t exactly fit his needs. He had a family, after all, and he didn’t want his son growing up in a massive palace. So overtop of the original Castle, they built this home.”

“So the real Castle is under us?” Sans asked, awe struck.

“Sort of.” Gerson rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “It was never complete. There's a few halls, elevators, a throne room, but not really a fully fledge  _ castle _ .” 

While interesting, this knowledge did not make the walk any less daunting. Sans gripped Gerson’s hand tightly, trying to take it all in.

They had taken the ferry here, but Sans had been very aware that they had passed Hotland on the way in. He understood that the Royal Guard needed to talk to the King  _ before _ wrecking shit up, but it was very hard to go with it. He couldn’t imagine what Papyrus was thinking. If Sans took too long, Papyrus might get mad at him. Loose hope that his brother was coming to save him. Sans want to save his brother  _ right then and there _ . 

It was taking a lot of effort to stay patient, like some part of him was tugging in two directions. Yes, he wanted Dr. Gaster to  _ pay _ for everything he’d done. He wanted  _ justice _ . But if it meant having Papyrus in danger? He would rather actly rashly than smartly, if only so his brother could be safe.

He had to be patient. He  _ was going _ to save Papyrus, but if he just ran off then he wouldn’t get the help he really needed.

Papyrus would understand, especially if it meant not just saving him  _ this _ time, but for forever. Sans was going to  _ make sure _ that Crackface never bothered anyone ever again, and he had a feeling that Gerson and maybe even Varg wanted the same thing. 

Varg went to knock on the door of the house, but Gerson just chuckled and opened it.

“Fluffybuns probably isn’t home.” Gerson said. “Knowing the goof, he’s either down in the garden or out walking around. We can wait inside for him, he won’t mind.”

Varg looked uncomfortable just barging into the King’s home, but he followed Gerson in anyways. Sans followed soon after, looking around the house.

It was...cozy. Nothing big or extravagant, but it was definitely homely. It almost reminded him of the house Alphys had let him and his brother crash in, but he found that comparison dumb.  _ This _ house was definately lived in, and well cared for. 

Gerson led the way to the living room, telling Sans to have a seat at the table. Varg ordered the other Royal Guard members to wait around, then the two went off into the basement to see if the King was down in the garden. 

Sitting at the table was...awkward. Sans was very aware that he was vastly different from everyone else there, and he didn’t know what to do with himself. He was also suddenly aware that he was still wearing Alphys’s raincoat. He began guiltily playing with the ties on the collar, wishing he had thought ahead of time to give it back to her. He hoped she didn’t need it, hoped that she didn’t yelled at for losing it. 

He kicked his feet under him, swinging them back and forth. He was still barefoot, but being a skeleton that hadn’t exactly bothered him. Not many monsters seemed to wear shoes at all, as he’d learned. Back in the labs, the only two people who didn’t wear shoes were Dr. Jess and Dr. Quid; Dr. Quid because they were a snake, obviously. And as for Dr. Jess, Sans had always just assumed they were a rule breaker, or that they used their feet in place of their hands sometimes.

Sans had always assumed shoes were a must, but maybe that was just because Dr. Gaster was always wearing them. Considering he had lived his entire life without wearing shoes, he doubted he’d ever find them comfortable.

Time inched forward. Sans looked around the house, taking in details, trying not to go crazy. Hours later, or so it felt like, Gerson finally came back up the stairs.

“The King is downstairs.” Gerson explained. “Him and Varg are talking now. They’ll come to an agreement soon.”

Gerson pulled out another chair at the table and sat down, looking Sans over in a much too serious fashion. Sans couldn’t keep eye contact with the turtle.  

“How are you feeling?” Gerson asked, with much more sympathy than Sans was expecting.

He blinked and looked back up, as to if make sure he’d heard him correctly. There was nothing but sincerity in his expression, though. Still, it took the kid a couple of seconds to piece together an answer.

“I...fine?” Sans stuttered out. “I mean, I’m really worried for Papyrus, and I’m nervous about how all... _ this _ is gonna pan out but I...I don’t know, I guess it could be worse.”

“You’re doing very well,” Gerson said reassuringly. The comment left Sans a little bit confused, because he wasn’t entirely certain what the old turtle could mean by that. “Varg is going to make sure that you and your brother never have to worry about Dr. Gaster again.”

Sans nodded. He knew that, he really did, but it didn’t much help the ache in his gut. He doubted that anything  _ would _ help, not until he had Papyrus back. 

For a moment there, the two were silent, both waiting on the Captain. Sans was brewing in a stew of worry and self consciousness, though, and soon enough it was too much for him to handle. He turned back to the old man and cleared his throat. 

“Um...” He began, sounding even less sure of himself than he was. “While...while Varg and you go to the labs, what...where am I going?”

Gerson rubbed his chin. “Ideally you’d be staying here, with one of the Guard people here to watch you. Knowing the King, he might want to stay and watch you himself.”

Sans felt himself stiffen up at  _ that _ thought. The sight must’ve been funny, because Gerson chuckled.

“The King is no one to be afraid of.” Gerson insisted. “He’s a big softy, really lovey kind of guy.”

Sans nodded. “And...uh...when you guys get Papyrus? Where...where are we going then?”

Sans had made the mistake of not planning things out once before. Experience had taught him that he should have a plan before making rash moves. And right then and there it was very obvious that once the Royal Guard invaded the labs, Sans and Papyrus wouldn’t have any kind of home. Sure, he had been pretty confident before on being homeless, but the more he really,  _ truly _ thought about it, the less sure of himself he got to be. 

“That actually kind of depends.” Gerson admitted. “We  _ will _ find you two a new home, with guardians you’ll actually enjoy, I  _ swear _ that to you. But it might take a while, and until that happens, I can’t really say for certain where you two will go.”

Sans nodded, understanding. Better an honest answer that he didn’t like than a lie, he supposed. 

Besides, the future was really just too far out of reach. As much as he wanted to plan ahead, he just couldn’t see it. He didn’t know what was going to be happening come  _ morning _ , let alone what would happen when Dr. Gaster was no longer a threat. 

So any thought he could have of having a normal family, of growing up, of just being a kid and nothing else, all just went right out of his head.

The two were quiet again, neither one seemingly up for much conversation. 

It took nearly ten minutes for something else to happen. There was conversational noises on the stairs, and then Varg and the biggest monster Sans had ever seen were entering the living room.

Sans’s first ever meeting with the King was definitely one he’d never be able to forget.

 

~~

 

Sans wasn’t entirely certain how he had managed to convince them to let him come with them to the labs. He had said some things, things like  _ my brother needs me _ and  _ it’s been an entire day and you guys haven’t done shit! _ and even an  _ but I know where to go in the lab and you guys don’t, so you’re gonna need me  _ but, in all probability, the only reason they’d let him come along was because they didn’t want him sneaking off on his own. Varg had even given him strict orders to stay with one specific Guard member when they got to the lab, and to not move an  _ inch _ from their side until the raid was done.

Well, Sans was shitty at listening to instructions on the  _ best _ of days, soooo.

He mostly blamed the Royal Guard Captain for his own insubordination. It had been Varg that had held back on raiding the labs for nearly an entire  _ day _ because he wanted to make sure he had enough people to do it. Because he wanted to “time it right” or some other such bullshit. Because he wanted some kind of information, information that apparently wasn’t in the King’s archives  _ anyways _ .

The wolf had been stomping around for a few hours that morning about it, muttering on and on about how messed up it was that the Royal Archives didn’t have a proper map of the Core or the labs. Asgore had simply shrugged and said that he never thought to keep track of it. 

All bullshit. They should’ve left  _ the minute _ they got permission. 

The only good that came out of the wait was that Sans had managed to get a full eight hours sleep in, and some food. His magic was back in full, better than full. He hadn’t felt so complete since the breakout. It had been child’s play to slip away from his escort and teleport back down into the labs.

OK, maybe he felt a  _ little _ bit guilty. But he could worry about that later. Once he had his brother back. 

He had managed to teleport right back down near his old room. He didn’t have the best navigation skills, but there was something very memorizing about the labs. After wandering around them for however long with Papyrus the first time around, he had a good feel of where to go.

Besides, the lab wasn’t as winding and confusing when you got used to it. It was just big.

Sans retraced his steps back to Papyrus’s room and dove right in, teleporting so fast he made himself a little bit dizzy. He was pumped, excited, ready to see his brother again and...

Papyrus wasn’t there. The room looked exactly how Sans remembered it, hell no one had even made the bed since they left, but  _ Papyrus wasn’t there _ .

Sans tried very hard not to panic. He teleported right out of the room and over to the security room, only realizing once he’d gotten there that one of the scientists might be there. He lucked out, the room was as empty as last time, and he was free to look around.

There were a  _ lot _ of cameras in the lab. It was like Crackface had wanted to cover every square inch of the place, the paranoid ass. Still, within the first couple of minutes of looking around Sans had located the cameras that covered his old room and all the area around it, including Papyrus’s old room. Papyrus was nowhere to be found.

He had to have been moved to a different part of the lab. Probably because Crackface knew about Sans teleportation. He had probably set it up like that so that when Sans snuck into the labs for his bro he’d have to go searching all over the lab. Presumably that meant Papyrus was an entirely  _ different _ section of the lab, because Crackface would want to put him somewhere where it’d be difficult for Sans to find, i.e. would then have to waste a ton of magic to look around. 

That didn’t give him any hints, though. Sans groaned to himself, rubbing his face. He was starting to think he was never going to have to  _ stop _ being patient, because now it seemed like his best option was to look through all the security cameras until he found his brother. 

Sans jumped nearly sky-high when an alarm went off somewhere in the building. He looked over at one of the desks as one of the lights on the console began to flash red. Above it was a series of Core related footage, the workers all stopping and looking around confused. The alarm must’ve been going on in the main part of the building, probably the handiwork of the Royal Guard. With a shrug, the Core workers stopped what they were doing and began to file out of the building.

Right, like that would convince Gaster to leave his lab. Sans shook his head slightly, unable to understand the motives of the Captain, and then continued to hunt around.

He started in the Core section of the labs, but it didn’t seem like there were all that many floors where they could keep someone. Sans sorted quickly through all the possible rooms, then he jumped straight over to the extension.

It took him several minutes following that to locate Papyrus. He had had to get on one of the desktop computer in order to look at the footage for the other labs (thankfully whoever used it last left it logged in) so the first notion he got of Papyrus was just the name of the camera.

_ Subject (Stage 2) Operations _ .

Sans hadn’t even bothered to open the footage, or even think about the name too much. He knew that Subject, when used with a capital S, meant either him or Papyrus. Every room he’d ever seen in his life in the lab was labeled like that;  _ Subject Quarters, Subject Training, Subject Medical _ . In this instance, Subject  _ had _ to mean Papyrus, so Sans just jumped up and quickly looked up where that room was on the map.

Maps were...not his strongest suit. He did his best, sketching out a rough copy of the floor he needed on a piece of paper. 

He teleported to the extension right afterwards, following his makeshift map around the place. He made sure to physically walk around a bit so he knew the area; teleporting with a passenger would be hell, so he was going to have to plan this out with as little teleporting as possible. He worked his way in deeper and deeper into the lab.

Shockingly, there was no one around. Granted, it was a large lab for only five workers, but Sans had almost expected to run into someone by now. He was still itching to punch someone in the face, even though he knew how dumb of a plan that was, so he was almost a little disappointed that he didn’t meet anyone. He tried to tell himself to stop being dumb when he finally found the room Papyrus was in.

He teleported in, fully expecting to just see his usual, happy-go-lucky brother.

What he found was...well, it was an entire game changer.

_ Operations _ had meant operation. Sans should’ve seen that sooner, hell he had enough of them done to him to know that word well. He should’ve been able to guess that without a main experiment, a control was useless. Gaster would have repurposed Papyrus, put him through all the shit Sans had to deal with.

And Sans was only just now thinking that. And he was only now thinking that because he was now  _ seeing _ it.

Papyrus was lying strapped down to a gurney in the middle of the room, completely out cold. There were several near-glowing bottles of DT sitting on the counter, and the monitors were all still strapped to him. The machine next to Papyrus was running normally, which Sans had always assumed meant the person hooked to it was also normal, but looking at his brother filled Sans with an entirely new type of dread.

Papyrus had gone through a  _ DT session _ . 

And he was still  _ on the gurney _ .

This wasn’t right, this wasn’t normal. After a DT session, none of the scientists had ever let Sans fall asleep. They had unstrapped him  _ right _ after and had him run through exercises before putting him back in his room. They hadn’t done that  _ here _ . They’d just  _ left _ Papyrus here and...and...

Oh god, he was so  _ still _ . 

_ No no no no _

Sans felt his knees buckling, but he didn’t let himself collapse. He crossed the room quickly, his hand reaching out unbidden. He grabbed his brother’s arm and start shaking, trying to wake him up.

_ Come on come on come on _ .

“Pap...yrus?!” He managed weakly. He cleared his throat, tried again. “ _ Papyrus?! _ ”

He was rewarded with a bit of movement from his brother. The kid clenched his eyes, but didn’t open them. His hand opened and closed, his feet moving a little bit. 

“Oh god, OK,” Sans started rambling, so completely unsure of how to handle the situation that he began to panic. What did you do when someone had been under the magic suppressant too long? Would it affect Papyrus’s natural healing magic? Was his brother...?

“It’s..uh...it’s OK, OK? Papyrus?” He shook his brother again, but the kid just rolled his head. “No no  _ no _ , Papyrus you’ve got to  _ wake up _ .”

Papyrus’s eyes blinked open, but he was staring without any sort of focus in them. He groaned and closed them again quickly. 

He was awake. Sans breathed a mild sigh of relief, trying to get his worry out of his head long enough for him to actually think rationally.

“No,  _ no _ come on, bro, you  _ got to  _ wake up now.” Sans ranted, trying to pester Papyrus into staying awake. Waking up, moving around,  _ not sleeping _ were the only things that were going to help. Papyrus had to  _ move _ before he could get better. “Shit, uh, hang in there a second, OK? Do  _ not _ go back to sleep on me, OK?!”

Sans shook Papyrus’s arm one last time before letting go.

He racked his brain, trying to remember all the things that followed a session. He rooted around the cupboard for some bandages, trying to psych himself for the task of removing the IVs. He had had several IVs done to him over the course of his life, so likewise he’d seen them removed a million times. But it was  _ one thing _ to watch someone else do it, and another thing to do it himself.

At least skeletons didn’t bleed. One of life’s minor miracles. 

Sans made sure the bandage was secure before he began to take off the scanners, working as quickly as his shaking hands would allow him to. He try to jostle Papyrus as much as possible as he worked, trying to clue him in on what was going on. He managed to get everything off of Papyrus, dumping the equipment unceremoniously to the side before he began attacking the straps.

Papyrus began to stir a bit more as the straps lifted. He began to really move a bit when Sans freed his legs, his eyes furrowing in confusion. 

God, Papyrus must’ve been so tired. Sans could remember his first ever DT session clearly, and he could especially remember the draining feeling that had followed it. He  _ still _ didn’t feel like he had gotten enough sleep to make up for the exhaustion it had caused.

“Come on, Papyrus.” Sans continued, trying to wake him up more. “You got to get up and moving. I know,  _ I know _ , you want to sleep more but you  _ can’t _ . You’ll feel better if you  _ move _ .”

Papyrus managed to open his eyes, fighting through what was obviously very uncomfortable lighting in order to look around. When he found Sans his eyes widen significantly, like he couldn’t believe what he was seeing. 

“ _ Sans _ ?!” Papyrus asked, awe sounding.

Oh man, his voice was so  _ hoarse _ .

Sans swallowed his dread, his guilt, and managed to form a smile. “Hey bro, I’d love to chat about everything but right now you need to get up and moving.”

Papyrus groaned in response, flopping back down on the gurney. Sans’s smiled fell instantly, and he quickly moved to Papyrus’s side.

“No, no come  _ on _ Papyrus.” He put as much insistence in his words as possible. “I know,  _ I know _ , but moving is the only thing that’s really gonna help. Come on, I’m here.”

And he was here. He was always going to be here, always going to be there for his brother. There was no way in  _ hell _ he was going to be leaving him alone ever again. No way  _ anyone _ was ever going to hurt  _ his brother _ ever again. 

He pulled on Papyrus’s arm until he cooperated in sitting up. Sans hooked his arm around him, holding him steady. Papyrus kept blinking, keeping his eyes squinted as he struggled to gain focus. Sans held on tightly, then pulled Papyrus off the gurney and onto his feet.

That...might have been a mistake. Papyrus couldn’t support himself  _ at all _ and Sans ended up taking all of his weight. It was a struggle not to drop him, to keep them both standing. Papyrus clearly caught on, as the second he realized Sans had buckled a bit he himself began struggling to stand upright. Sans wished he had Papyrus’s strength, what the kid really right now was for someone to carry him until his magic came back.

He was going to have to make due as a crutch and hope Papyrus could bounce back quicker than he could.

“Wh...what’s going on?” Papyrus slurred his words, but he deserved an answer. Anything to give him hope.

“Gerson’s upstairs.” Sans explained, not bothering to mention Varg or the King, not wanting to confuse the still half asleep skeleton. “He’s making a fuss and demanding Crackface come up and talk to him. He’s got most of the Royal Guard backing him, but Crackface is stubborn” Sans seriously doubted that he was just going to turn himself over, but eventually the Guard would come stomping in. 

“I snuck away and teleported down here. Didn’t realize that you...that he would...” Sans choked on his words, his terror and dread dragging on him.

Papyrus was awake enough to hear it, apparently, because he immediately tried to stand a bit straighter. “I’m OK.” He insisted.

“Like hell you are. Don’t forget I’ve been where you are right now.” Sans said, trying to sound stern but probably not managing it. 

Sans pulled his brother along, making him take his first couple of lumbering steps. There was no way Papyrus was going to handle teleporting well, so Sans turned the door blue instead and yanked it open, not even pausing to think about it. He pulled his brother out into the hall, retracing his steps back to the Core labs.

He was burning with the need to know why Papyrus had been put through this shit. He was only now properly thinking about the cameras, about how Papyrus had been moved, about the DT session.

What the  _ hell _ was the stage 2 thing on the camera footage all about? What the  _ hell was stage 2 _ ? 

Sans told himself to knock it off, to just focus on the task at hand. He could figure everything else out later. He could also punch Crackface in the face later, if he was still able to follow through with that plan.

The more the two walked, the more Papyrus gained his footing. He seemed...well he seemed determined to stand on his own. As much as that worried Sans, he couldn’t help but feel relieved that Papyrus was waking up, that he was bouncing back. They didn’t know where the five scientists were at, after all, and Sans wasn’t comfortable teleporting with Papyrus in bad condition. Who knew what kind of effect it could have? 

“Why’s Gerson here, anyways?” Papyrus asked as the duo stumbled through the halls. Sans couldn’t help but smile; Papyrus was already sounding loads better.

“Alphys ignored me.” He admitted plainly. “Seems to be a running theme, hun? You ignore me, we get a house to crash in, Alphys ignores me and the Royal Guard shows up to arrest Crackface. Frankly, I don’t even know why I tell you guys to listen to me in the first place.”

If this mess had proven anything, it was that Sans was completely incapable of making decisions. Good decisions anyways.

“Wait, back up. Alphys went to Gerson?” Papyrus speech slurred a bit in the middle of his statement, but he was sounding better and better with every passing minute.

“Yeah.” Sans said, looking down with a little bit of pride at the stolen raincoat. “And _ then _ she found me wandering around completely lost in Waterfall. She insisted I talk to Gerson, and...well damn she can be pretty convincing when she’s worried. By the way, she’s  _ extremely _ worried about you.”

That was kinda his fault though, to be fair. Eventually he’d have to mention that he told everyone about them being experiments, but he figured he could save it until Papyrus was awake enough to handle it. 

“Anyways, I ended up following her back to Gerson’s place and he’s already calling in the army.” Sans didn’t bother to go into too much detail about how hard it’d been to work up the nerve to actuall enter the shop. “I get there and I guess it made his day because now he has proof that skeleton children are wandering around homeless. All I really had to do was talk about how much of an asshole Gaster is and suddenly everyone wants to help. I...geeze I don’t know. I’ve been really dumb this whole time, when a solution to our problem was right in front of us and I just...I don’t know.”

He couldn’t even begin to to justify his logic behind not going to the Royal Guard. He had no idea why he had thought it would be such a bad idea. He regretted not listening to Papyrus sooner.

“It’s not your fault.” Papyrus said. Sans was almost amazed that the poor kid was trying to console  _ him _ when he’d just gone through torture, but it was such a  _ Papyrus _ thing to do. “I didn’t want to go to the Guard either.”

“Yeah, after my dumb ass convinced you not to.” 

“But you actually had a good reason on why not! You were thinking things through, which isn’t a  _ bad _ thing.”

Good old Papyrus, trying his damndest to cheer his brother up. Still, all Sans could managed was a defeated sigh.

“I regret every decision that lead to them getting you.” He said matter-of-factly. “To...to this.”

The two lapsed into silence. Seems like even Papyrus couldn’t think of a good response for that, so he just didn’t say anything. Hopefully he used his energy for more responsible things, like building up his stamina. 

The two worked their way through the lab, making it back to the bridges that cross over to the Core section. Papyrus seemed a bit uneasy everytime they crossed one, so Sans held onto him tighter as they move. He wanted to reassure his brother that the bridges were completely safe, but he knew enough about irrational fears that that wouldn’t help. So instead he just held his brother tightly, trying to get them to cross the bridges as quickly as possible.

Sans opened up the door to the final bridge with a brief feeling of relief. He stepped them out into onto the platform and instantly froze in place.

Standing there was a very surprised looking Dr. Blake. 


	3. Gerson

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Takes place during chapter nine with hints about chapter ten.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OK so, this is actually not that great. This is very short, and is the result of me writing, rewriting, editing, and rewriting everything like fifty times over. So now it's like four pages long and pretty dull but fuck it, amiright.  
> Basically, this chapter was originally going to start off when Sans got to Gerson's shop, but that sounded really repetitive and dumb. So then I started it at the castle, then on the way to the labs, and finally now it starts right before the raid on the labs. So yeah, it's really short and there's not a whole lot to it BUT I really wanted to do another Gerson POV and by god I did it.  
> I might do another one of these later on to kind of redeem this, and give Gerson a bit more of a spotlight, but I'm first going to finish TSotSC.   
> So consider this like a bit of a...hint about the next couple of chapters. Nothing major spoilerly/wasn't already guessable, but if you want to read chapter ten without any hints at all I recommend not reading this first.

Gerson couldn’t help but think that maybe, in hindsight, they shouldn’t have brought the kid along. He had just been overeager, too willing to pound in heads, and he hadn’t been thinking straight. The thing he  _ should’ve _ done was stayed in the shop and kept a close eye on Sans. Or even stayed in the castle. Or simply put his foot down about Sans going with them to the labs. Varg might have been the actual Captain of the Royal Guard, but the wolf monster still listened to Gerson’s advice. 

Really, it had just been a completely dumb decision to allow the kid to come with, escort or not. He hadn’t even had it in him to be surprised when Sans disappeared right before Varg gave the order for the Core employees to evacuate. 

Right, whatever. They could still work with this. 

Clearly there had to be some sort of side exit somewhere, despite what the Guards roaming around the place said. Sans had clearly known where it was, it had probably been how the kids had escaped in the first place. Eventually the Royal Guard would find it too, and eventually they’d find Sans. 

Until then, they still had some heads to smash. 

The Royal Guard was in full ransack mode, ready to completely wreck the labs. With the Core employees safely evacuated from the building, the alarm was cut and the search could begin in earnest. According to the floor manager only five people were unaccounted for, and they were all the ones the Guard was there to see. Nothing could be easier to hunt down the five scientists and arrest them, and then they could hunt down the two small skeleton children.

Case close, everyone goes home happy. Well, maybe not the scientists, but that was the law. The _point_ of it was getting justice, which the two children desperately needed.  
Gerson himself stuck close with Varg on his orders; technically Gerson was retired, a citizen and without any sort of legal power himself. _Technically_ Gerson was only there as a consultant, but he knew Varg well enough to know that he could expect his fair share of excitement. 

And Gerson was expecting qutie a bit of excitement, considering what he knew of Wingding Gaster. Maybe had had some prejudice, but  _ something _ about Gaster had always rubbed him the wrong way. The kid had been fine when he was a college graduate, just starting out as the Royal Scientist, but once the Core was done he had just sort of...shut himself off and started working on projects with only his team in the know-how. And whenever the doctor  _ did _ appear at events? It was like it was an entirely different person. Gone was the anxiously quiet, but brilliant scientist Gerson had first met, instead Gaster had become a cold and cut off individual.

Something about him had always been... _ off _ to Gerson. But he had always assumed that he just didn’t know the man well enough.

Now he wished he had acted on his instincts. If he had just pressed a little deeper into everything this asshole had been doing, then none of this would’ve ever happened, and two kids wouldn’t have had to grow up in hell. 

Well, hindsight was 20/20. Gerson was here now to fix that mistake, and so was his hammer.

Varg, two other Guards, and Gerson all traveled down two floors into the Core proper, three other search teams splitting off into other floors. As big as the Royal Guard was, Varg couldn’t exactly pull  _ everyone _ off of normal Guard duty to search the labs, which meant they were spread  _ very _ thin. Granted, a well trained, well armed Royal Guard  _ should _ be able to easily trump a scientist, but the situation was clearly making Varg uneasy. Not twenty minutes into their hunt the other two of their team had to split off in different ways, leaving the retired and current Captain alone.

And that was when the shifting began.

The whole  _ place  _ began to move, the halls and rooms spinning and changing and shifting below their feet. Gerson used his hammer as a balancing tool, keeping himself as steady as possible. Varg was having quite a bit more trouble, his claws skating over the walkways easily. The two shared worried looks, keeping on guard.

The changes happened every couple of minutes. Gerson suspected it was automated or something similar, as they happened very regularly and there didn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason to the way the rooms connected. On a couple of instances, him and Varg found themselves trapped in a moved room, only to have the room move again and allow them to move forward.

Varg and Gerson were hopelessly lost, trying to figure out their way through the Core. This had already been noted as possibly being a problem, back when they were planning out the raid with the King. As always, Fluffybuns had turned around and offered some surprisingly valuable advice.

“Chalk.” He had said. “You’ll want to specifically get black colored pieces. If I remember correctly, it used to be that the employees of the Core use it to remind themselves where they’ve been after a shift has accorded. Nowadays, tablet computers have made keeping maps of the Core on hand possible, but chalk should still work just fine.”

And it did, but only to an extent. It didn’t help to know they had already been in a room when that room was now their only way forward, but it helped to keep track of what doorways the two had taken and how the room had previously been set up.

Gerson was confident they were making some actual headway when they first heard the grinding noise. The two shared concerned looks, moving forward apprehensively. 

The grinding noise paused and started again,  _ something _ in the lab complaining very loudly. Gerson could almost hope that it was related to something that didn’t affect them, but he knew they probably weren’t going to get that lucky. 

As the two walked, Gerson became aware that the shifting of the rooms was picking up slightly. The room they were in ended up changing twice, swaying rapidly as it clicked into place. Gerson was about to mention the change when suddenly their room seemed to... _ collide _ with something. The sudden jarring stop threw them both off their feet, and the found themselves stuck in another no-exit room.

The room seemed to be stuck, and the grinding noise had only gotten louder. 

And then there was a scream.

 

~~

 

Days later, Gerson would find he had no real memory of leaving the Core. At some point, the rooms had righted themselves, with only one destroyed bridge hindering their progress out. Varg and him both had examined what was available, but until the rest of the Royal Guard could come down to investigate it seemed like they were simply too late to help.

The story hit the airwaves a couple days later. The Core’s lower research team got caught in the Core while it was going haywire. The Royal Guard showed up and evacuated everyone else, but there were roughly five or more casualties. 

The actual number was up in the air. None of the lower research team appear to have any kind of record in the Core, probably due to security reasons, and only one of them had had a family. The family themselves barely saw the scientist, and they didn’t have any information relevant to the investigation. Gerson didn’t like giving them the news; there was something profoundly upsetting about realizing a small girl was going to have to grow up without her parent.

Still, it seemed like the Royal Guard had simply gotten there too late to do any real good. At the end of the day, the real heroes were the small group of scientists who managed to right the Core and stop the crazy spinning nonsense.

Gerson wasn’t even entirely certain why he had been there to begin with. He could vaguely remember having Varg over at his shop, probably so the two could chat and catch up, so he mostly just assumed that Varg had gotten the call about the Core while at the shop and Gerson had just decided to join in for...well shits and giggles probably.

All the running around had turned out to be tiresome, so as soon as he was able to he went back to the shop to crash.

Too much excitement for this old turtle.

He was still lightly napping when he saw the skeleton child, a kid barely taller than his counter. They were wandering around outside, looking vaguely lost, with only a dirty pair of shorts, a T-Shirt, and a yellow raincoat to keep the elements at bay. Granted, from what Gerson could remember, skeletons didn’t often get cold, so the child was probably fine. But it still bothered him, looking at this homeless kid not knowing what to do.

He wasn’t certain what it was about the kid that told him they were homeless, but he was absolutely positive about it.

So Gerson ignored the aches in his body and stood up, grabbing a bag from one of the shelves in his counter. He filled the bag with as many crabapples as he could, then threw in a few Sea Teas to boot. 

The kid hadn’t moved on when Gerson finally made it outside. In fact, they seemed to be staring dead at the shop, though they jumped noticeably when Gerson appeared. 

“Ah...ah...I’m sorry...” They began mumbling, their nerves clearly shot.

Gerson just chuckled, trying to put them a bit more at ease. He offered up the bag, which the kid took with a very surprised look on their face. “Nothing to apologize for, kiddo. It’s a shame to see kids like you homeless, so if you ever need anything you just stop by here and I’ll help you out, OK?”

The kid went from surprised to confused. They held the bag of apples as if they didn’t know what to do with it, looking at Gerson as if he’s shell had just turned purple. They opened their mouth, closed it, opened it again, then closed it again and hummed to themself.

Finally, they just nodded. “Thank you, Mr. Gerson.” They mumbled, bowing their head slightly, probably from embarrassment.

“Just Gerson, kid.” Gerson responded, wondering if he’d met the kid before. Probably; he told old war stories to a lot of the local kids, though he couldn't quite remember seeing any skeletons before now. “Now run along and get warm, OK? The dump might have some better clothes than that old rain coat.”

The skeleton kid just nodded, sparing Gerson one more baffled look before doing as he was told. 

Gerson watched him go, then hummed quietly to himself in thought. He wondered why he hadn’t read in the papers about a skeleton child being born, but he didn’t worry about it much. His memory wasn’t like what it used to be, after all. 


End file.
